Glossary: planning, routine and focus terms explained

Plain-language definitions of time-blocking, body doubling, brain dumps, chronotypes and many more planning terms, each with a sentence you can type straight into LifeOS.

• ADHD routine
  An ADHD routine is a daily structure built on cues and anchors rather than willpower. What makes it different and how to build one that survives bad days.
• Body doubling
  Body doubling means working alongside another person, in the room or on a call, to make starting and staying on task easier. Popular with ADHD; here is how it works.
• Brain dump
  A brain dump is writing down everything on your mind in one go, without sorting it. Why it lowers stress and how to turn the pile into a plan afterwards.
• Buffer time
  Buffer time is empty time you plan between appointments and tasks to absorb delays, travel and transitions. Why a day without buffers is a fragile day.
• Chronotype
  Your chronotype is your natural tendency to be alert early or late in the day. What the lark and owl types mean and how to plan your day around yours.
• Context switching
  Context switching is moving your attention from one task to another. Why each switch costs time and focus, and simple ways to switch less often.
• Decision fatigue
  Decision fatigue is the drop in decision quality after making many choices. How routines and defaults help you spend fewer decisions on small things.
• Deep work
  Deep work is focused, distraction-free effort on demanding tasks. What the term means, why it has become rare and how to protect time for it every day.
• Digital detox
  A digital detox is a planned break from phones, social media or screens. Why short, regular breaks work better than big dramatic ones.
• Dopamine menu
  A dopamine menu is a personal list of activities that give you a boost, sorted by size, to choose from instead of scrolling. How to build your own.
• Eat the frog
  Eat the frog means doing your most dreaded important task first, before anything else. Where the phrase comes from and how to make it work in practice.
• Eisenhower matrix
  The Eisenhower matrix sorts tasks by urgent and important into four boxes: do, schedule, delegate, drop. How to use it in five minutes.
• Energy mapping
  Energy mapping is tracking when you have focus during the day and when you fade, then planning hard work into your peaks. How to map your energy in a week.
• Evening planning
  Evening planning means deciding tomorrow's plan the night before, so the morning starts with action instead of decisions. How to do it in five minutes.
• Evening routine
  An evening routine is a set of calm, repeated steps before bed that helps you wind down and prepare for tomorrow. What to include and what to leave out.
• Executive dysfunction
  Executive dysfunction is difficulty with the brain's self-management skills: planning, starting, switching and remembering. What it looks like and what helps.
• Getting Things Done (GTD)
  Getting Things Done, or GTD, is David Allen's productivity method: capture everything, clarify it, organise it, review it and do it. The core ideas in brief.
• Habit stacking
  Habit stacking means attaching a new habit to one you already do every day. How the after-I-do-this-I-do-that formula works, with simple examples.
• Habit tracker
  A habit tracker is a simple record of whether you did a habit each day. How to track without turning it into a chore, and which habits are worth tracking.
• Implementation intention
  An implementation intention is a plan in the form when X happens, I will do Y. Why stating when and where you will act makes goals more likely to happen.
• Inbox zero
  Inbox zero is a way of handling email in which you decide on each message so the inbox is emptied regularly. What it really means and how to keep it up.
• Meal prep
  Meal prep means cooking or preparing meals in advance, usually once or twice a week. How it saves time and decisions, and a simple way to get started.
• Mental load
  Mental load is the invisible work of remembering, planning and organising a household or a team. What it includes and how to share it more fairly.
• Micro-habit
  A micro-habit is a habit so small it is almost impossible to skip, like one push-up or one line in a journal. Why starting tiny builds routines that last.
• Morning routine
  A morning routine is the fixed sequence of things you do after waking up. What makes one realistic, and why it should fit your body clock rather than a 5am ideal.
• Most important task (MIT)
  Your most important tasks, or MITs, are the one to three things that would make today a good day even if nothing else got done. How to choose and protect them.
• Parkinson's law
  Parkinson's law says work expands to fill the time available for it. Why generous deadlines make tasks longer and how to use tighter limits to your advantage.
• Planning fallacy
  The planning fallacy is our tendency to underestimate how long tasks will take, even when similar tasks ran late before. How to plan more honestly.
• Pomodoro technique
  The Pomodoro technique splits work into 25-minute sprints with short breaks. How it works, who it suits and how to adapt the intervals to your focus.
• Quick capture
  Quick capture is writing down a task, idea or appointment the moment it occurs to you, in seconds, before it slips away. Why speed matters more than order.
• Routine anchor
  A routine anchor is a fixed moment in your day, such as waking up or dinner, that other habits hang from. Why anchors make routines much easier to keep.
• Shutdown ritual
  A shutdown ritual is a short, fixed routine that ends your workday: close loops, glance at tomorrow, switch off. Why it helps you stop thinking about work.
• Sleep debt
  Sleep debt is the gap between the sleep you need and the sleep you get, added up over days. The signs, why weekends do not fully fix it, and what does.
• Sleep hygiene
  Sleep hygiene is the set of habits and surroundings that support good sleep: regular times, a dark cool room, less late caffeine and fewer screens before bed.
• Spaced repetition
  Spaced repetition is reviewing material at growing intervals so you remember it for the long term. How it works for exams and languages, and how to schedule it.
• Task batching
  Task batching means grouping similar small tasks and doing them in one go. Why switching less saves time, with examples for email, errands and phone calls.
• Task paralysis
  Task paralysis is feeling frozen in front of your to-do list, unable to start anything. Why it happens, especially with ADHD, and small ways to get moving.
• Time blindness
  Time blindness is difficulty sensing how much time has passed or how long things take. It is common with ADHD; here is what it looks like and what helps.
• Time-blocking
  Time-blocking means giving every task a slot in your calendar instead of a place on a list. What it is, why it works and how to start with three blocks a day.
• Timeboxing
  Timeboxing means setting a fixed time limit for a task and stopping when it runs out. How it differs from time-blocking and why it beats perfectionism.
• Two-minute rule
  The two-minute rule says that if a task takes less than two minutes, do it now instead of writing it down. When it helps and when it backfires.
• Weekly reset
  A weekly reset is a short routine, often on Sunday, to tidy up, catch up on chores and plan the week ahead. What to include and how long it should take.
• Weekly review
  A weekly review is a short, regular session to clear your notes, check the calendar and choose next week's priorities. What goes in a 20-minute version that sticks.
• Working memory
  Working memory is the mental notepad that holds information for a few seconds while you use it. Why it is so small, and why lists and reminders help.

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